zoebaily

My hospital was so successful at promoting 24/7 visiting in ICU, that they now started having a mandatory "quiet time"; because there are visitors at all times of day and night. Quiet time starts at 12:30 pm which is lunch time for patients. They want us to go around shutting the blinds, turn off the lights and not allow visitors. But it's lunch time. What time does your hospital have designated as mandatory quiet time?

How sad. I've been an RN for 25 years and live in fear of making an error that might harm a patient. Yet our hospital is continually decreasing the level of staffing, requiring nurses to do more, take on added responsibilities/roles, (some that take us away from the patients' bedside- yet we still are responsible for that pt's care), spend more time documenting on computer systems that do not meet the needs of the user. The software is too complex and time consuming. Something is wrong when more time is spent in computer charting than in providing patient care. I do not work at Seattle Children's but I could say the same thing about the hospital at which I work. All staff will have second thoughts about reporting errors.

"Do you have a paper clip?" Sure! Just let me stop giving report to the oncoming nurse, so I can go find a paperclip for you (visitor). No problem there. People use your brains.

Many units that promote 24/7 open visitation are not truely 24/7 or "open". Many have certain restrictions,like no visitors during change of shift, or no sleeping in room at night or just 2 visitors at a time. Try true unrestricted open 24/7 visitation and it may not work out so well.

The positive thing is ...you are doing "Joint Commission-centered care".